243 vs 257

[Cal Sibley]

It's been my understanding that the .243Win. had much to do with killing off the 25 calibers, maybe not so with the .25-06 though. I have an older Savage 110 in .243Win. and it's accurate enough for my woodchuck hunting. I've never really felt comfortable in using it for deer though although many hunters do.
I think it simply boils down to personal choice. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[Evan03]

heck my pellet gun could drop a buck of a lifetime with one shot instanlty if all conditions are just right, lucks on my side and the deer is takeing that perfect breath as i squeeze the pellet off in his eye.


as you can see i do agree.

it doesnt matter what you shoot. every kill is difrent. if you shoot deer thats standing calmly it might fall over dead instantly, it may take of at dead run lasting for 100yds. or it may start to take off and do a knose dive. but chances are this deer that is calmly feeding will drop very quick with well placed shot from most any center fire out to 300yds. small calibers included.

but that same deer that youve been chaseing. has adrniline flowing. then stops to look back at you and you plug him, youve beren hikn hard to keep after him. your shots not placed very well. basicaly you saw the deer and aimed at it. vitals nor shotplacemtn not crossing your mind, because you dont want to miss your opurtunity. so youve just punched buck with the ultra mag 338. that your now following a very faint blood trail. and no site of the buck.

maybe you winged it, glanced off its belly hit it in the foot, shot through the antler(ive seen that happen). theres all kinds of bad shots that can happen when shots are russed due to time and adreniline

these are the calibers i shoot for deer. 2506, 270win, 270wsm

i shoot a varity of 100gr bullets in the 25, hand loaded balistic tips, that are very acurate but may not give me the best bad shot placementr performancec, i also shoot rem 100gr core lokts. these are more acurate than youd ask for from a factory load thats inespensive. but would work best in the ideal shot placement situation.

the 270wsm, is loaded with 140gr nolser bts because they shoot so well. i hunted with this load this last season feeling confident a well placed shot would do the trick. never got to test the load on anything but coyote. at 300yds the bullite didnt exit.

my 270win shoots 150gr nolser partitions, not as acurate as the wsm, but in my opion give me more shot opurtunitys. the tough bullet will penetrate bone and hopefully reach the vitals or send bone junks to them from bad shot angles

ill hunt everyday anywhere with my 2506 but i feel ill let the not so greast shots go but if that monster walks out at a bad angle you can bet ill wait for a better shot for only so long before i send a 100gr nolser bt his way.

[CanWoodsman]

The 25.06 is an excellent deer round. It will push a factory 115-120g. round over 3000' per sec. with handloads doing slightly better.

Best Wishes

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

As for the .243 Win cartridge, well it's certainly taken enough game over the years to prove that it's capable of doing so. However I do believe with the 6mm's that bullet selection is paramount. There are simply a lot of varmint bullets in the 6mm range which is something I have to look into as I will be looking at a rifle in 6mm Remigton in a week or so.

Now as to Deer not showing a hit and then running, Hmmmm I can relate to that. My only Whitetail Buck so far did this to me after a about perfect broadside shot which put a 7mm 139 Grn BTSP at about 60 yards taking out the top of the heart and both lungs, yet he just started runnning at an angle down the deer trail behind me where he stopped to look back and I out the second one through him which dropped him.

The thing is called "Messamastics" which is pre programmed muscle movements, the Deer is a prey animal and nearly always ready for flight. The Buck was looking my way, so perhaps he saw me move to aim at him but he certainly felt the bullet hit which triggered th flight mode. He would nto ahve gone a lot furhter with both lungs punctured and the top of the heart destroyed, but he may have made it into the creek so I shot again. Plus at 60 yards I didn't hear the bullet hit .

[.243hunter]

The 243 is good as long as you put the bullet in or close enough to the right place. 243 ammo is also availble just about where ever ammo is sold